The Silicon Review

CHINA REPLACED AS THE TOP AI VENTURE CAPITAL INVESTMENT HUB

The Silicon Review05 November, 2019

AI (Artificial Intelligence) has been of special interest in China since 2016. This led to the creation of successful AI startups with massive market reach and advanced technology like SenseTime, Yitu Technology and CloudWalk. They have conquered the domestic market but are facing challenges to expand oversees owing to foreign market regulations and conditions.

However, US has replaced China as the global AI venture capital investment hub. Based on the investment figures from 2019, the gap between US and China is expected to continue to get wider and the US share is expected to reach 70 percent. The growth in US is due to increase in investments from Cruise Automation, Dataminr, Zoox and Zymergen and their investments are further expected to increase to 14 billion dollars in 2019. At the same time, China has experienced a yearly growth rate of 54 percent with a total of 7.4 billion dollars.

Lian Jye Su, a principal analyst at ABI Research commented that “the US is reaping the rewards from its AI investment strategy.” AI startups in US come from different sectors like self-driving cars, data analytics and cybersecurity. According to Su, “China is still undeniably the largest single market for AI implementation. The flexible policies and the government in China are willing to invest and deploy innovative technologies and will certainly amplify AI adoption in the region. While the United States may be leading in investment in AI research and development, in the longer term, China will be able to capitalize on those technologies and bring them to the masses."